Exclusive interview with Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour from her home, where she remains under house arrest

Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was arrested because of her posts on social media.

In October, police raided her home in the middle of the night. They handcuffed Tatour, a 35-year-old poet, and took her away.

“You look like a terrorist,” an interrogator told her. The Israeli government accused Tatour of inciting violence with her poetry and Facebook posts.

She faces up to eight years in prison, if convicted on all charges. Her case is still pending, and the trial will resume on Sep. 6.

Tatour has already spent three months in Israeli prisons, and another six months under house arrest in an apartment near Tel Aviv, which her family was forced to pay for.

In late July, an Israeli judge ruled that she can continue her house arrest in her family’s home near Nazareth.

The judge’s decision came after more than 250 prominent writers, intellectuals and artists published an open letter calling for Tatour’s release. Among those who endorsed the letter were Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Dave Eggers, Claudia Rankine and 10 Pulitzer Prize winners, including renowned poet Alice Walker and journalist Kathryn Schulz.

Since then, more than 7,000 people have signed the letter, and activists have created an international solidarity campaign in support of Tatour.

Tatour’s story is one of many. From October 2015 to July 2016, the Israeli government arrested roughly 400 Palestinians for social media posts, according to local rights groups.

Yet her case has gotten particular international attention, given its chilling implications for civil rights for Palestinians in Israel, the U.S. government’s closest ally.

U.S. social justice group Jewish Voice for Peace recently published a video message featuring Tatour in her home in Reineh, an Israeli city near Nazareth, where she remains under house arrest.

Salon organized an interview with Tatour. The interview was conducted in person, in Arabic, and translated with the help of Yoav Haifawi.

Can you explain what has happened since your arrest and imprisonment?

I’m still detained and pending trial, since they burst in at 3:30 am on Oct. 11, 2015. A large police force raided our house, and asked my parents to call me, because they came to take me. They did not have an arrest warrant, violating the most basic laws.

After my interrogation they decided to put me on trial and to hold me in prison until the end of the trial. I can say that the interrogation and the trial are a farce and a shame for any system that claims to be democratic.

Initially I was jailed for three months, during which I was transferred between three prisons: Jalameh, Sharon and Damoun.

Later, the court put me under house arrest in the Tel Aviv area, and this meant I was in exile far away from my town. I stayed there for over six months, during which I was prevented from going out and from communicating over the internet at all times, day and night.

Then, in the wake of the mounting solidarity campaign protesting the undemocratic practices against me, I was transferred to the house arrest in my town, Reineh. Here, I’m not allowed to go out, except for just six hours per week, and they’re making me wear an unremovable electronic bracelet on my ankle to monitor my movements.

What were the conditions like in the prisons? Can you talk about your experience and the other Palestinian prisoners?

First, there are thousands of Palestinian prisoners serving sentences in Israeli jails, and among them women and children — in addition to administrative detainees, who are being held by Israel without charge, and of course without trial, for an unknown period, because, according to the emergency laws, administrative detention can be extended repeatedly with no limit.

When I was in prison I was with Palestinian women prisoners. I experienced the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners in all humanitarian aspects. I witnessed the neglect they suffer in Israeli jails, in terms of environmental and health conditions, and cruel treatment.

The prisoners in general, and especially women prisoners, are deprived of basic human rights, and I mean especially the right to receive proper medical treatment.

Israeli prisons are full of injustice; whatever I say will not be enough to describe the life of Palestinian prisoners there. I met there innocent women prisoners who didn’t commit any crime.

For example, I was arrested because of a poem, and I met a girl who was detained because she wrote a private letter to her sister about personal and family concerns, and because she said the word “suicide,” she was thrown in jail for three months.

Why do you think Israel is going after poets and other artists, and arresting Palestinians for social media posts?

The political persecution, detentions and restrictions on freedom of expression, in my opinion, are a symptom of the crisis of Israel. As the Zionist authorities intensify repression and step up their incitement campaigns against Palestinians, they feel more weakness and impotence.

On the one hand the Palestinians increasingly reject their colonial practices and racial oppression; on the other hand, as a response to the emerging culture of hatred at the popular level, an opposing anti-fascist stream is taking shape in Israeli society. This puts Israel in a dilemma, forcing it to step up its repression, thus exposing the Israeli regime as anti-democratic.

Is it hypocritical for Israel to insist it is a democracy while it arrests people who criticize it?

Of course it is. Israel is not a democratic state. To the extent that it is democratic, its democracy applies only to one category of people, of citizens — that is, it is only democracy for Jews. For this reason I call it sectarian democracy or fake or hypocritical democracy.

However, even this kind of democracy started collapsing recently, as I explained in the previous answer.

Do you know if the letter from the 250 literary figures helped improve your situation?

Yes, of course. The solidarity campaign, including the petition, which was signed by many artists, writers and people from all over the world, helped very much.

In the beginning the conditions of my detention were very harsh. I was detained for several months in a house near Tel Aviv, away from my family and the place where I used to live. I was completely isolated from people; I was prevented from leaving the house altogether. It was more like a detention in solitary isolation cell in exile. It continued like this for more than six months.

Before the escalation of the solidarity campaign, my lawyer filed a request to transfer my home detention from Tel Aviv to Reineh — my town — but the prosecution strongly objected, refusing even to let my request be heard in court.

However, after the publication of the petition, it changed its attitude to the request, and eventually approved. My return from Tel Aviv to house arrest in Reineh greatly alleviated the conditions of my detention.

Do you think that continuing public pressure may influence the final verdict in your case?

Yes, definitely, the public response to the call for solidarity in my case, and around the issue of freedom of expression in general, is the only effective pressure that may change this unfortunate situation.

I believe that public pressure may force the Israeli authorities to reconsider the persecution of Palestinian artists, writers and young activists just because they express their rejection of oppression.

What gives you hope?

Hope is the foundation of life. There is a saying that I used to repeat before my arrest, and I still say it: “We dream in order to continue living.” Here I compare dreams with hope, because without hope we are going to die even as we are alive, and only our bodies will remain.

Hope is the sense of life, of freedom, of safety. It is what gives meaning to everything experienced by humans; we breathe hope to live meaningful lives.

What can human rights activists in the U.S. and elsewhere do to help fight for your rights and the rights of other Palestinians?

The U.S. government is the world’s biggest supporter of Israel. Activists in American society can put pressure on Israel in order to shed light on the issue of freedom of expression and the harassment by the Israeli authorities against those who oppose their views.

Palestinian Arab people in Israel are facing campaign of racist incitement, on both official and popular levels. Attacks on them multiply just because they speak Arabic in public places. These are dangerous developments. In this regard, I believe human rights activists should sound the alarm before it is too late.

Ben Norton is a politics staff writer at Salon. You can find him on Twitter at@BenjaminNorton.

How “security considerations” become means for torture…

(On Tuesday, July 26, at about 20:00, Dareen was finally allowed to go home. After more than 3 months in prison and more than 6 months in exile and house arrest, she will still be under strict house arrest at home, waiting a prolonged trial for one poem and two Facebook posts. If found “guilty” – which is what happens with about 99% of the people indicted in Israeli courts – she is expected to serve another prolonged period in prison. The struggle to #Free_Dareen_Tatour, like the bigger struggle for Palestinian human rights, has still a long way to go.)

We invited everybody to celebrate the return of poet Dareen Tatour to Reineh today, after more than three months in prison and more than six months in house arrest in exile in Kiryat Ono near Tel Aviv (more than 100 km from her home). Yes, we knew that she will still be in house arrest under harsh restrictions: confined with volunteer guards to the house, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with an electronic device attached to her ankle monitoring all her movement and prevented from any access to the internet. But at least she will be at home, surrounded by family and friends.

Dareen Tatour during a break in the hearing today just before going back to prison

But after a prolonged drama in the Nazareth court the result was that Dareen was arrested and returned to prison. She will probably spend the night in the filthy cells of the Jelemeh detention center, where she spent the first month of her detention. Tomorrow we will have another hearing in court, but as things go we can’t be optimistic until we will see Dareen fully free.

This cruel attempt to break Dareen’s spirit just as she expected her situation to improve reminds me of the case of Bilal Kayed. Bilal, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was sentenced to 14 and half years in prison for resisting the occupation. On the day that he had to be released, June 13, 2016, he was transferred instead to administrative detention for another six months, a period that can be extended arbitrarily and indefinitely. Today Bilal is on the 40th day of hunger strike against his administrative detention, and there are many demonstrations in solidarity with him against the breaking of the few rules that were still respected in the relations between the occupation and political prisoners.

But what happened today in the Nazareth court?

Before our court hearing started, we were given a devastating evidence to the ground truth of the reality of occupation that is the real background to Dareen’s saga. Two young workers from the West Bank were brought before the judge on the accusation of crossing the walls illegally in search of work. He casually remanded their detention and sent them back to prison in less than 2 minutes, like somebody that eats a nut and throws the shell behind his back.

Delivering Injustice Slowly

The current request to alleviate Dareen’s detention conditions is almost three months old. It took a month to set a date and few more weeks to make the initial hearing, where the prosecution objected to the very hearing of the request. As an alternative they insisted that a special parole officer will examine the suitability of the proposed new guards to be with Dareen, which brought us up to last Monday, July 18.

In the meantime the international pressure to release Dareen mounted, with hundreds of poets and writers from all over the world signing a petition in her defense. The prosecution softened its position a bit, now agreeing to Dareen’s return to Reineh. But still another week was allocated for the adjustment of the electronic device to work in Dareen’s house in Reineh – and the hearing was postponed to today, Monday, July 25.

In the meantime Dareen’s lawyer prepared seven proposed volunteer guards – much more that the number usually required, as he had a long experience of the prosecution failing any proposal to alleviate the detention conditions. Judge Hana Sabagh, the vice president of Nazareth low court, agreed to hear only four custodians. They all passed the interrogation perfectly. But then the judge noticed that three of the four guards, Dareen’s father and two brothers, work, and only her mother will stay with her at daytime. And what will happen if her mother will have to get out? The next in line were Dareen’s sisters in law – but they also work outside the family house. In the end the judge agreed to accept as a fifth guard one sister in law that works part-time. I wonder about what “dangers to the public” the judge was thinking when he invested all this time to create a perfect shield around Dareen that is never applied to really dangerous criminals.

Crisis and Arrest

Then it came out that the approval from the operators of the electronic surveillance device was missing. First everybody thought that it was only a problem of communication. The court’s clerks are still on strike and they put off the fax machine where such documents are regularly sent. The judge even tried to show leadership and said that “we will find a way to get the approval without breaking the strike”.

But when the lawyer called the operator again it became clear that the approval is not ready. It is a private for-profit company that received the responsibility for operating electronic handcuffs from the government through a special contract. They were supposed to do their job within five work days – and that’s why the Judge postponed the hearing for a whole week. But they visited Dareen’s house only yesterday. And though the professional team that checked the place said that everything is OK, today on the phone they insisted that, according to their contract, they have another five days now to write their conclusions.

Abed, Dareen’s lawyer, suggested that Dareen will be allowed to go to Reineh anyway, until the final approval will come. After all, she was allowed to be with her family on Eid Al-Fitr (albeit only for one day), and once again when there were court hearings day after day. They Judge objected, saying that he couldn’t allow Dareen to go to Reineh for a few days least there will be a negative reply from the operators of the device and he will be forced to send her to prison…

Dareen told the court that there is no way that she will go back to Kiryat Ono. The Judge didn’t wait to hear why and ordered the guards to take her. But then everybody stood up and shouted, and the judge said he will set the next hearing for tomorrow, maybe the operator will make up his mind in the meantime.

Dareen’s lawyer tried to convince the judge that if there is only one night until the next hearing, he doesn’t have to be any braver than the previous judge that let Dareen spend one night at home before. But then the lawyer for the prosecution began to shout, saying there is no reason to allow this. She mentioned the fact that Dareen didn’t infringe in any way the conditions of her detention over the last half year as a proof that there is no problem with her staying more in Kiryat Ono. Judge Sabagh apparently decided that he’s more afraid from the prosecution’s fury and ended the hearing without any decision except for setting the next hearing for tomorrow at 13:00.

Dareen went out and inspected her options. After some time she went back to the judge with her family and lawyer and repeated her position that she simply can’t go back to Kiryat Ono. The judge ordered the court guards to arrest her and give her to the police. Now Dareen is in prison again for very good reasons: As the judge said, he wouldn’t want to arrest her if there will be a negative response from the operators… and as the prosecutor said, she never infringed the conditions that were imposed upon her… The State of Israel was spared another great threat to its sacred security!

But will it make a difference?

It is more than 9 months since Dareen Tatour, the Palestinian poet from Reineh, was arrested and accused of inciting violence… all for one poem, two statuses and sharing the image of Israa Abed. She spent three months in three different prisons and is now confined to a small apartment in a suburb of Tel Aviv, more than a hundred kilometers away from her home and friends.

“The fact that a poet was arrested and tried under such baseless accusations is the result not only of the racist system (police, prosecution, judiciary), but also of the indifference of public opinion. Where are the poets and writers when we need them to protect the freedom of expression?”

To be honest, the response was more than anything I expected.

Through the last month, we had not only a hearing of Dareen’s request to alleviate the conditions of her detention on Monday 27/6, but also a demonstration in Yaffa (Saturday 25/6), a poetry night in Tel Aviv (also 27/6) and another in Haifa (Thursday 30/6) and high profile media cover.

No News from the Northern Front

Since her transfer from prison to house detention, Dareen is held in very harsh conditions. The prosecution waged guerilla warfare to prevent or delay her transfer and refuse any option that was proposed to the court, appealing against any decision that went a small step in Dareen’s way. The result was that Dareen is now closed 24 hours a day in a small apartment that her brother was forced to rent in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv. She wears an electronic device on her ankle that monitors all her movements. But her two volunteer guards are still obliged to stay with her 24 hours a day “to make sure she doesn’t connect to the internet”, or they will pay a high fine and Dareen will be returned to jail. They both have to work opposite shifts and had to stop their studies. The lives of three people came to a standstill for unlimited period.

Dareen’s lawyer, Abed Fahoum, submitted a request to the Nazareth court, to transfer Dareen’s detention back to the family’s home in Reineh. As the prosecution refused, for different reasons, all proposed “guards”, the new request listed six possible new guards, in addition to Dareen’s parents. It took more than a month till the court set the date to study the request on June 27.

The prosecution position was very sharp. There is no reason to even hear the request, as there is nothing new in the case. After half a year of house detention the prosecution will typically agree for softening the conditions – but not in Dareen’s case. Judge Idris is already traumatized after the many hearings he already held about Dareen’s detention and after several of his decision were overturned on appeal. He clearly wanted the prosecution to soften its position, but as there was no sign of it he left Dareen under the same harsh conditions until a second hearing on July 18.

Dareen burst in tears in the court as she heard of the decision. She said before that if her conditions are not alleviated she may request to go back to prison. But now she will hold her breath until July 18.

The lawyer also requested to let Dareen to spend the Eid al-Fitr next week with her family. The prosecution lawyer requested to call his superiors, and then requested to answer that request in writing within two days. The written answer, apparently from the higher circles in the Nazareth prosecution, was sharp objection. In the end the judge decided to let Dareen stay with her family only a day and a half of the Eid’s three days…

From Yaffa’s clock square to Haaretz Editorial

A second vigil was initiated in Yaffa (Jaffa) by local Palestinian activists. It concentrated on Dareen’s case but raised also the issue of administrative detention of Palestinian activists. Some fifty activists took part with significant presence of the media, including Al-Jazeera and Haaretz.

On Sunday there were two articles in Haaretz: one by Vered Lee contained many interviews that she held in the vigil, including with Dareen’s father; the other about the planned poetry events. On Monday morning, the day of the hearing concerning Dareen’s detention conditions, Haaretz editorial in Hebrew and English called for Dareen’s release.

The Hebrew Poet’s Letter

As the case drags on in court, there was time enough for many poets to wake up and take a stand. At the initiative of poet Tal Nitzan, the following letter was written:

We, poets, writers and members of the academy, are shocked and appalled by the arrest of Dareen Tatour and the charges she is facing for publishing a poem online and status updates on Facebook. Dareen Tatour, an Israeli citizen, has been imprisoned for three months and is now under a severely limiting house arrest awaiting her trial, for publishing a poem online.http://bit.ly/1W8xN7v

This is a clear case of unjust silencing and a severe violation of freedom of speech and protest, a new and grave stage in the deterioration of human rights in Israel, and a shameful proceeding that is befitting a totalitarian state and is unacceptable in a so called democratic state.

This prosecution of an Arab poet is particularly disturbing considering the law enforcement authorities disregard for the violent, racist and much more extreme content posted by Jewish citizens daily. This is a practice of double standard and a biased oppression, intolerable in a state that presumes to practice equality before the law. http://bit.ly/1Jf17Sp

As writers, deeply committed to freedom of speech and human rights, we will not stand by. We demand freedom for Dareen Tatour and withdrawal of the charges against her.

Poetry Evening in Tel Aviv

Tal Nitzan also collaborated with colleagues in organizing two poetry events in Tel Aviv and in Haifa. The event in Tel Aviv was held in the “Sipur Pashut” (simple story) library in Neve Zedek. A long list of poets, writers and academics announced their participation. I copy it here for you from the event’s page on Facebook:

Poetry evening in “Sipur Pashut”

Dr. Ilana Hammerman

Tal Nitzan

Liat Kaplan

Yael Gluberman

Diti Ronen

Dr. Anat Matar

Alma Miriam Catz

Reading a poem for Dareen (in Haifa)

Dana Amir

Noam Partom

Eli Hirsh

Sheikha Hilawi

Rachel Peretz

Esti G. Haim

Roy Chicky Arad

Raanan Ben Tovim

Meytal Nadler

Eitan Boloken

Maki Hacham Neeman

Hila Aharon Brik

Arlet Mincher

Stav Almagor

I succeeded to arrive there after the court hearing, and, though being completely tired, I was very impressed both with the dense presence – people literally climbed one above the other to find a place – and by the thoughtful selection of texts and special words that were prepared for the event.

But now the initiative came from Hebrew writing poets and they didn’t want it to be confined to Tel Aviv alone. We looked for a place that will be more identified with the Jewish society in Haifa and agreed with “Isha L’Isha” (Woman for Woman) feminist center to host the event. Later on the organizers received threats from right wing activists and we had to find a new place at short notice. We went back to Palestinian Haifa, where Al-Yakhour youth hostel was happy to host us and the right wing activists didn’t even bother to call.

Being in Haifa, there were Arab and Jew poets, all gathering in the open air entrance of Al-Yakhour for the event. Here is the list of the readers from the invitation:

Rasia Feru

Lee Mamman

Some of the participants in the Haifa event

Lilach Galil

Turkey ‘Amer

Sigal Ben Yair

Heiam Abu Zuluf

Meital Nissim

Sami Mhanna

Oren Agmon

Sabrina De Rita

Rajaa Zoabi Omari

Lilach Weber

Shira Cohen

Ali Mawassi

Yehya Atalla

Majd Sgheir

Some of them didn’t really show up – but the virtual participation meant making a democratic stance in support of Dareen and Free Speech.

Poet Lilach Weber even wrote a special poem called “The Right Side of History” about Dareen’s persecution for poetry, which she published in Ha-Oketz and read to us in that evening.

I had the honor to thank the participants in the name of the organizers. I emphasized that our solidarity with Dareen Tatour is not because her case is so special but mostly because her case is an example of the similar fate of hundreds of Palestinian youth that are persecuted for expressing their resistance to Israeli racism and occupation. I added that even the general repression of the right of expression and free speech is not the heart of the problem but more like a symptom. When you hold millions of people without basic human rights and no democratic way to control their lives or decide their future, resistance and repression are the natural results.

More Poetic Solidarity

The poetry world has its own ways to express solidarity.

A Hebrew poetry magazine named “Maayan” (spring) decided to give Dareen its prize for “Poet in Struggle” – with an attached check of 500 shekel.

What Next?

Tomorrow, Sunday, July 17, at 4:00 pm, there should be another of the main trial against Dareen, with more policemen coming to testify about the “confessions” that they extracted from her, from her computer and from her cellphone.

Israa Abed – shot by Israeli soldiers in Afula central bus station. Posting her picture is one of the indictment articles against Dareen Tatour

On Monday, July 18, at 9:00 am, judge Idris is expected to decide about Dareen request to go back to Reineh, even if under strict house detention.

We all hope that the public pressure so far (and some common sense) will be enough at least to let the court counter the prosecution’s pressure and allow Dareen to return home. Otherwise Dareen may prefer to go back to prison – at least her detention period in prison (unlike house detention) may be counted in case that she will be sentenced for more time in prison.

Later, in September, the court will start to hear the defense case. A lot is at stake there. The defense will state that Dareen’s poem and Facebook statuses are perfectly legitimate artistic and political expressions. Can you convince an Israeli judge to recognize this? Farther more, the defense will claim that the whole prosecution apparatus in Israel is systematically targeting Palestinians for legitimate expression of political opposition while it totally ignores severe incitement for violence by right wing Zionists against Arabs. It is a lot to prove – and there is plenty of evidence to support it – but will the court be ready to hear it?

If Dareen Tatour is finally convicted, which is a very possible result, the accusations against her can carry up to 8 years in prison. By the latest cases in Israeli courts sentences of around 1 year of imprisonment seem to be quite common.

(On Monday, June 27, the court in Nazareth heard Dareen Tatour’s request to relieve the strict conditions imposed on her in her house detention, and, most important, to let her return to her home in Reineh, even if still under detention. As the prosecution firmly objected, the judge postponed his decision until July 18. In the meantime we had a chance to meet Dareen and she gave me the following letter to all of you who support her against persecution.)

One Who Does Not Thank People, Does Not Thank God

With these few words I open my letter to all of you who stood by me and my family in these difficult times and through this harsh experience.

I thank you with all my heart. Thanking you is perhaps the least I can do while I am in this detention and exile, far from everything I’d lived through before my imprisonment. In spite of all the difficulties I have experienced and still experience, your stand alongside me — and your voice, which has reached me — are like rays of light which give me the power for sumud.

My message to all of you, without exception, is the message of a loving woman, striving for peace and safety, and hoping that justice and equality will be shared by all human beings everywhere. A woman whose life has been condensed to a pen, a paper and an image… I dreamed one day about the existence of people like you, people looking for dreams amid all the nightmares that live around us and between us.

Yes, I thank you, and I put all the hopes of humanity in your hands — those hopes that you see, hear, and feel.

We need more solidarity and pressure in the near future

The last court session was held on Sunday, May 8. There was one witness for the prosecution – a policeman – Salman Amer – the one that got the material from Dareen’s computer and smartphone. Before the hearing we held a successful vigil outside the court. Probably the judge was pressed from the multitude of Dareen’s supporters – so she decided to hold the hearing behind closed doors.

You can read about the 8/5 vigil and hearing my reports (Hebrew and English) , a report by Jack Khouri in Haaretz (Hebrew and English) and a later report in “Local Call” (in Hebrew only) with more details from the courts protocol and about solidarity activities.

The court set a new schedule: the next hearing will be held only in 17/7 – and there are 5 more witnesses for the prosecution. Another hearing was scheduled for September 6 – so the defense case will not start until that date and is unlikely to end then. By that schedule Dareen is expected to stay in her detention and exile for more than a year even before the case will be decided…

This schedule forces us to concentrate now on an effort to, at least, “improve” the harsh conditions imposed on Dareen. Her lawyer, Abed Fahoum, promised that a special request to the court to bring back Dareen to Reineh – even if under house detention – will be placed with the Nazareth court early next week. When we get a date for the hearing I will publish it on the Free Dareen Tatour Facebook Page. But the best chance to get some relief for Dareen is in case that there will be concrete pressure on the prosecution – mostly by international public opinion and human rights organization.

I also wanted to mention that Dareen’s brother and his fiancée, which were appointed by the court to “guard” Dareen at her exile/detention in Tel Aviv, were forced to hire a special apartment for this purpose and had to stop their studies (both were post-graduate students of medical professions) and adjust their work schedule – with huge costs and disruption to their personal lives. Dareen is even more concerned to relieve them than to go back to her home.

Publicity and Solidarity

Dareen’s case received huge publicity in the Palestinian press – she became a symbol for hundreds of Palestinians that are arrested and persecuted for expressing their views on social media. Her case was prominently mentioned by Muhammad Barake, the head of the “Arab follow up committee”, in front of thousands of protesters in the “March of Return”, the commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba that was held this year in Wadi Al-Zubale, in Bir A-Sabe’ (Naqab) region, on May 12.

The general association of Palestinian writers issued a special declaration (in Arabic, May 15) in solidarity with Dareen, calling for her immediate release. The declaration calls for “solidarity action and the mobilization of all possible energies to pressure the occupation machine and force it to release the poet”. Sami Muhana, head of the association of Palestinian Arab writers in the 48 territories, also issued a denunciation in behalf of this association. Herak Haifa held a special poetry reading event on May 5, in solidarity with Dareen Tatour, with the participation of five young Palestinian poets.

In the Israeli press we succeeded to get about as far as one can go with a comprehensive article by Gideon Levy and Alex Levac in Haaretz (in Hebrew and English). But till now, in spite of repeated efforts, no Israeli writer, nor any Israeli Human Rights organization, showed any interest in this case. Please correct me if I missed something – I will be more than happy to publish any expression of solidarity from any side.

Activists of “Jewish Voice for Peace” held special protest in solidarity with Dareen in front of the Israeli consulates in New York and Philadelphia before the court hearing on May 8.

Pen International, in a declaration from April 25, condemning the arrest of Palestinian journalist Omar Nazzal, related to Dareen’s case, saying: “PEN International is also concerned at reports that Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour is currently on trial for alleged ‘incitement to violence’. The organization is currently assessing the content of a poem and Facebook posts the poet, who is from Nazareth in Israel, wrote which are the basis of the charge.”

Sarah Shulman, and American novelist and academic, sent the following message of solidarity: “I am honored to offer open-hearted solidarity to the Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour and hope others will join me in supporting her quest for freedom to live and write according to her conscience.”

It is time that more poets, writers and all freedom loving people will make their voice heard for the freedom of Dareen Tatour, for freedom of the arts and freedom of expression, for the freedom of the Palestinian people and all the people in this small world.

You probably know this famous quote: “It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future”. It is so famous, logical and elegant that it is attributed to many different oracles. It is almost as difficult to analyze political developments just as they happen in front of our eyes.

Still it is worth the effort to try, as better understanding of the situation can help us take a more constructive and effective role. And, as is inevitably the case, when we make mistakes in our analysis, and reality soon disproves us, those mistakes can also be used to critically examine our assumptions and analytic methods.

So, what can we already learn from the events of October 2015 in Palestine?

On the methodology

Most of the discussion that I’ve seen over the last month, and I mean those articles that tried to analyze the events, not just promote the cause of the Palestinian liberation struggle (or of the Israeli oppressors), concentrated around the question whether this is “a third Intifada” or just “a Heba”. Mainly they were attempting to assess the strength and durability of the current confrontation.

This one-dimensional thinking seems to me to miss much of what can and should be analyzed. The development of the confrontation between the occupying state and the Palestinian society are influenced by internal economic and social changes within each side as much as by the course of the confrontation itself.

Beyond this, events in Palestine are integrally connected to the system of control and social development in the Middle East and its place in the world. This system is now undergoing the most profound crisis in its modern history. And this crisis in the Middle East is happening against the background of major changes in the relationship of powers between the old imperialist powers and the emerging third world, while technological and cultural changes enable new ways of organization and resistance as well as new methods of oppression.

Who Started?

It is not (or not only) about the blame game… Understanding the dynamics that led to the current climax is an important part in its analysis.

It is my view that it started with systematic Israeli provocations.

One small detail that testifies to this is that “events” in Al-Aqsa started around the 14th of September, the Jewish New Year holiday, which have no meaning for the Palestinians. Actually it became a tradition for the Israeli extremists to use Jewish holidays to initiate provocations in the holy places, hoping that the Army will be provoked by the Palestinian angry response and will retaliate with more oppression and massacres. In the last “cycle” it was only after more than two weeks of systematic provocations that there was wide Palestinian response, by the beginning of October.

To understand the logic of the Israeli provocations, we can also go back to the previous round, in the summer of 2014. The Israeli army exploited the kidnapping of 3 Israeli youth on June 12, 2014, to initiate a wide campaign of terror against the West Bank population. In order to do it they hid the fact that the three were killed on the same night that they were kidnapped, and claimed to be searching for them to save their lives. In the following campaign they killed scores of Palestinians in the West Bank, arrested many hundreds, including many of those that were released in the Shalit prisoners’ exchange. Finally Israel launched full scale massacres’ campaign against Gaza, killing thousands.

Building on Insanity

One difference between summer 2014 and autumn 2015 is that the current Zionist campaign was mostly led by “private initiatives”. There is a lot that should be investigated about the internal dynamics of the Zionist state and society:

The settlers and religious extremists strengthen their hold over all the institutions of the Israeli society: political parties, the army, the police, the courts, the media and much more.

Israeli politics is mostly about an unrestrained “populist” competition who is more openly and blatantly racist and oppressive.

One of the most significant phenomenons of this cultivated insanity is the systematic growth of the “Temple Mount Lobby” and the extent to which it is taking hold within the heart of the establishment.

We should not really have to dive into the depth of the Zionist spirit in order to analyze and understand the functionality of these “messianic” trends. The Zionists rely on their total military superiority against the mostly unarmed Palestinians and calculate that in any confrontation the Palestinians pay a much higher price in martyrs, physical injuries, thousands of prisoners and destruction of the infrastructure of civilian lives.

In their quest to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, what the Zionists are looking for is any opportunity to use their military power against the local population without paying too high price in the region or internationally. Now they calculate that the people of the region are too busy with internal struggles, and the regimes of the region are all mobilized to oppress the masses in their own countries in the most criminal ways. In this atmosphere almost any crime against the Palestinians can pass without severe repercussions.

Mass protests face intense oppression

The first Palestinians response, at the beginning of October, was mass demonstrations that started in Al-Quds and spread across the West Bank, Gaza and the 1948 occupied territories. In Al-Quds there was mass participation in the demonstrations day after day, like in the first intifada. In Gaza the first mass demonstrations near the Israeli border fence were met with deadly fire against unarmed civilians. I will relate later with more detail to the struggle within the ’48 areas, but it is important to note here that it combined a general strike and mass demonstrations as well as many initiatives by young activists all over the country.

With the resurgence of mass demonstrations, all the institutions of the occupation acted simultaneously to suppress the mass struggle by “changing the rules” to be ever more oppressive:

The Knesset passed extraordinarily fast the new law that sets long minimum prison sentences for the offence of throwing stones, even if there was no damage caused. In case somebody might get confused, the severe sentencing is only for “nationalistic” or “terrorist” stone-throwers, so Jews can go on throwing stones at will.

The police give priority to oppressing Palestinian protest over any other issue. Mass arrests are used for any offence from Facebook status through peaceful demonstration to confrontations.

The police and prosecution make mass trial against the youth that took part in the protests and do whatever they can to keep the accused in custody for the time of the trial.

The courts regard Palestinian protest as a kind of “terrorist activity” that deserves detention until trial, unlike any other offence.

Collective punishment was applied against all Arab residents of Al-Quds with roadblocks, closures and police harassment.

Administrative detention is now used not only against the political leadership but also against activists, even some teenagers.

The most severe measure is the usage of live ammunition by the police and the army against demonstrators. It is now systematically used in the Arab neighborhoods of Al-Quds.

Those draconian measures reduced very much the mass protests but increased the pressure and the anger within the Palestinian population.

Individual acts of violent resistance

As the price of political protest became higher, so there is stronger motivation for revenge and for physically attacking the occupation forces or the Jewish population, which is conceived as responsible for the occupation. This led to the wave of knife attacks and some armed or vehicle attacks, mostly by desperate youth that acted on their own.

It should be remembered that the “pacification” to which the occupation aspires doesn’t mean peace and security “for everybody” but the continuation of the expropriation and humiliation of the Palestinians without any response on their side. While mass protests are brutally oppressed and any kind of organized resistance is relatively an easy target to the security services – the individual acts of violent resistance are harder to prevent. They are conceived as success as they cause some harm to the occupiers – also the highest price is usually paid by the initiators.

I already wrote in more detail about the Lynch as an official Israeli policy. One clear example is an interview with “mainstream politician” Yair Lapid (in Hebrew) in Walla, on October 11, where he said that “The instructions should be clear: Everybody that takes out a knife or a screwdriver should be shot to kill”. In the racist Israeli-talk it was clear that, in this case, when he speaks of “everybody” he means Arabs.

More than 75 Palestinians were already killed in this last wave, the vast majority in incidents where no Jews (soldiers or civilians) were attacked or injured. In all the cases the official report is about “Mehabel” – a special Hebrew term, supposedly worse that regular “terrorist”, which is used for Palestinian resistance fighters.

The only cases that were recognized by the Israelis as “mistakes” were the Eritrean guy that was mob-lynched in Bir As-Sabe’e (Beersheba) and a religious Jewish guard that was killed by soldiers in Jerusalem. The mistake, as was clearly stated all over the Israeli press, was that they were mistakenly identified as Arab.

Comparing to the two Intifadas

Comparing the recent events with the latest two Palestinian Intifadas is very useful. One apparent difference is that in both of the Intifadas the whole Palestinian society was mobilized for the confrontation. Another, related, difference is that Intifadas were basically political struggle waged under the assumption (which later proved to be an illusion) that a political settlement is imminent.

Here I would like to express the view that the readiness of people to make the effort and bear the suffering that insurrection against an oppressive regime requires is basically motivated by hope. In the first intifada it was the belief that “the Palestinian state is at a stone’s throw”. It brought the Oslo agreement but no real freedom and no relax in oppression, ethnic cleansing and settlement building. The second Intifada was fueled by the belief that if the stones didn’t drive the occupiers out then rifles might do it. It worked for some degree in Gaza, but Gaza was put under siege and is regularly bombed. The occupation’s hold over the West Bank is now deeper than ever.

The current wave of struggle is different as it is not motivate by the hope of political solution but by disillusion with “the political process”. Still, trying to read the mood in the Palestinian street, I don’t think it is only “despair”. I think the Israeli hysteric response to the latest struggle is conceived as a sign of weakness. The major changes that take place in the region also inspire the belief that powers can fall and the people can change the course of history.

This renewed intense struggle against the occupation, not centered on any political program or the hope for political settlement, is thus not seen as an intense “round” in the historic conflict but more like a “new normal” where both the occupation and the resistance are taking a more violent form.

The internal dynamics of the Palestinian society

Concerning the internal development of the Palestinian society, the first Intifada can be seen as a revolutionary movement. The youth that mobilized in the liberation movement for armed struggle just after the occupation, and later begun to build new civil society in the seventies and eighties, toppled the dominance of the local conservative leadership and led to reorganization of society under the united leadership of the Intifada.

The second Intifada was more like regular war. The Palestinian movements and organizations already established themselves as at the commanding posts of society under the occupation. The newly founded Palestine Authority (PA) was torn between its obligation under the Oslo agreement to defend the occupation and the disappointment as it realized that Israel has no intention to let it develop into a fully independent state. The forces of the Palestinian society, including much of the established leadership, were mobilized to try to push the occupiers out.

In the current wave of struggle the internal dynamics of the Palestinian society are very different. The establishment of the PA resettled after the second intifada back to its function as supplier of local services and a security buffer under the occupation. The youth that are leading the struggle are doing it at their independent initiative, sidelining the PA establishment but not yet challenging it.

Learning from history, we may expect that the next waves of struggle will require and bring more dramatic internal changes within the Palestinian society itself.

The struggle in ‘48

Demonstration started on Monday, October 5, in several locations. One of them was a protest vigil in the German Colony in Haifa, which was initiated by Herak Haifa but organized under the united banner of “The Patriotic and Democratic Forces in Haifa”. It developed into a small spontaneous marching demonstration.

Al-Herak Shababi called for a country-wide mobilization to a demonstration in Nazareth, on Thursday, October 8. This call was met with new level of oppression: Some of the organizers were arrested on the day before in preventive detention (3 women activists were arrested with their fathers!). They were held in prison for 4 days. Buses carrying demonstrators were prevented from reaching Nazareth. The demonstration itself was attacked by the police and more than 20 of the participants were arrested. Some of the demonstrators that were prevented from reaching Nazareth went on to demonstrate in Um Al-Fahm and Tamra. In Tamra the police arrested 3 of the bus drivers, kept them in custody for the night and took hold of the buses for several days.

On the next Tuesday, October 13, there was a general strike of the Palestinian population and a mass demonstration in Sakhnin. The feeling was that, after long time, the people are really united in struggle.

But what seems most significant for me was that this time it was not only the political parties or even the new and more dynamic structures of the Herakat that organized and led the struggle. Many demonstrations were organized, between October 5 and 14, by local groups of activists. Many of them developed into clashes with the police. Hundreds of activists were detained and many are now still in prison and facing trial.

This level of mobilization is not totally new. It happened in the day of the land in 1976 and after the massacre of Sabra and Shatila in 1982. It was seen on a much higher level in the beginning of the second intifada, in October 2000, when a general strike and mass demonstrations brought all areas with Arab population to a standstill for 10 days. It was seen again during the latest onslaught on Gaza in summer 2014. But, relatively to most of the above mentioned events, this time there was no mass massacre to respond to, so it can be interpreted as a step forward in the organization of the activists and their ability to initiate protest.

The question I want to pose here is whether (or how) the new layer of activists that lead the struggle in the streets can become a more effective social and political force. The way to make this transformation may include:

Form a better connected network.

Be involved on a daily basis in the struggle against discrimination and Apartheid in a way that will be felt by and gain the trust of the general masses.

On the organizational level, a new type of mass organization, based on modern communication, can unite Palestinian activists and struggles beyond fences and borders.

On the political level, the struggle requires a political agenda that will expose and replace the current bankrupt one.

Opposition in the Israeli society

I must admit that I didn’t spend a lot of time following events in the Israeli society during this October. Still I have the feeling that in the face of the new challenges and the intensified crisis the level of political opposition was disappointing.

Faced with the challenge of the second intifada and the failure of the Oslo agreement, organizations like “Ta’ayush” and “Anarchists against the wall” changed the paradigm of the left in the Israeli society form a “pro-peace” lobby within the Israeli side of the conflict to “joining the Palestinian struggle against the occupation”.

In the latest events, those demonstrations that took place were mostly back at the old paradigm of equating the “two sides”. But, unlike the old days when the Israeli “peace camp” was strongly devoted to the illusion of the “two state solution”, now we hear them calling for peace without any concept or concrete program what this peace may be and where it will come from.

The most encouraging things that I read in the Israeli papers were the growing disillusion with Zionism as a whole, as a result of the deepening crisis. The talk about the paradigm of the “One State” is more ubiquitous than ever, even as the clear voice that calls for One Democratic State with full rights to all as a just and positive solution is hardly heard.

Some Israeli retreats

It is worth mentioning that the current wave of struggle forced Israel to some tactical retreats about provocative steps other than the extreme measures that were directly intended to suppress the protest.

The most obvious example is Israel’s proclamations of its obligation “to keep the status quo” in Al-Aqsa. Another example was the temporary suspension of the work on the anti-Arab “nationality law” in the Knesset.

Another issue that exemplifies both Israel’s hysteric and shameless response as well as its retreat before mass pressure was the much trumpeted decision to hold the bodies of Palestinian martyrs. It caused a wave of mass protest in Al-Khalil that led to the returning of some bodies and much wider public funerals.

The regional and international context

Netanyahu has just lost his most important political struggle on the world stage, to drag his imperialist sponsors into war against Iran. Israel used to be an important advanced position for imperialism to guard its interests in the Middle East. But Israel, as it is hated by the Arab masses because of its racist policies, is not an acceptable partner in any of the local and global coalitions that are now fighting for control of the boiling Arab East.

As Israel is losing its “strategic value”, the tension in Palestine is a constant drag not only on Israel’s image but also on the reputation of the Western powers that back it. The “Temple Mount Lobby” that is nourished by the current government is threatening to become a regional time bomb which nobody could ignore.

Like all reactionary forces in the region, Netanyahu tries to ride the so-called “Islamic State” horse in order to resist any change and paint any movement that struggles against the current oppressive order as “terrorists” and a danger to the world’s peace.

Freedom and democratization in the Middle East, the establishment of pluralistic society and new social and economic development plans that will care for the people are still the best foundation to expose and eventually uproot Israeli Apartheid.

Hassan Was Freed on October 22

After 18 days under intensive interrogation by the Israeli Shabak, Hassan Nadaf was

Hassan on the moment of his release in the Haifa court

released without indictment. He was put under house arrest for 10 day in the home of relatives in Ba’aneh in the Shaghour (in the middle of the Galilee). He was ordered not to enter Akka, his hometown, and to avoid surfing social networks, both for 30 days.

Below you can find the original post that was published in “Free Haifa” upon the news of Hassan’s arrest.

The Original Post: Free Hassan Nadaf! How Hooded Shabak takes control of the Haifa court…

When the police invaded Hassan Nadaf’s house in ‘Akka, at about 16:00 on Monday, October 5, 2015, nobody was really surprised. Hassan, a 20 years old worker and a well-known political activist, had already been detained and interrogated several times, and his parents’ house, where he lives, had already been searched before. Last time, on August 9, he was one of 8 youth detained after a demonstration in ‘Akka against the burning alive of the Dawabsha family in Duma, and they were all beaten brutally in the ‘Akka police offices before being held for several days and released without any charge.

More than 10 policemen entered the small house, most of them uniformed but some of them in plain clothes. Um Samer (Hassan’s mother) requested to see a court order allowing them to search the house. They didn’t have one but insisted on searching the house anyway, ignoring the quiet protest of the dwellers. They let the family understand that their visit was in response to something that Hassan had written on Facebook – a regular cause for interrogations in these days. They even said initially that they will interrogate Hassan at home – but then took him away. All in all, it was a relatively “polite search” – as far as this term can be applied when police invades your house without permission and search and take your private things. They took the home computer and a laptop, some posters, books and a Kufiya, the eternal symbol of Palestinian identity.

So it was a great surprise for everybody when Hassan’s lawyer, Jihad Abu Raya, who went to see him the same day in the Jalameh detention center (officially known as “Kishon”), was told that he is held by the Shabak (Israel’s secretive “internal security” services) and that he is prevented from meeting any lawyer.

It was an even greater surprise when today, Tuesday October 6, a police representative named “Marcel” presented a request to the Haifa court to extend Hassan’s detention for another 15 days (the longest period he could legally ask for) on the accusation of “possessing arms!” Um Samer protested to the lawyers: “Not only did they not find any arms; they didn’t even try to search for any! They only looked through Hassan’s personal belongings, leaving the rest of the house intact…”

Adalah lawyers, Suhad Bishara and Myssana Morany, prepared a fast appeal against the decision preventing Hassan from meeting his lawyer and presented it to the Haifa district court at about the time that the remand hearings where supposed to start. The low court judge was ready to wait for the hearing of this appeal before holding the remand in Hassan’s absence, but the state prosecutor office requested for time “to study the case” – so the appeal hearing was finally set for tomorrow, Wednesday, 8:30 am.

The decree that prevented Hassan from meeting a lawyer

The “decision” itself, preventing Hassan from meeting a lawyer, a copy of it is published below, is the most revealing evidence of Israeli injustice when it comes to the oppression of Palestinian political activists, be it that they are in the “disputed” West Bank, Al-Quds “residents” or “semi-citizens” in the 1948 occupied territories. It is an order to the police, signed by “Lavi,” supposedly the Shabak officer responsible for Hassan’s investigation. In Israel, any official signature will require a first name and a last name, so that any person can know who exactly stands behind that order. But “Lavi” is none of these two. If you had any doubt about this – here comes the official stamp saying “Hamekhuneh Lavi” – or, in plain English, “so called Lavi”!!!

By claiming that if Hassan will meet a lawyer it might prevent the detention of other suspects or the confiscation of evidence, it actually assumes that any lawyer is likely to be engaged in illegal activity at the service of his clients. This works very well for the Shabak but it goes against all the modern concepts of due proceedings and it is not applied to Israeli murderers and rapist…

The remand hearings were another display of the annulment of any due process.

Hassan missed his birthday when he was in detention. On the day of his release his friends and family made a party

“Marcel,” wearing jeans and T-shirt, announced that the court is closed and that the proceedings are secret. To the lawyer’s request, he failed to show any official order to that purpose, but, speaking for the Shabak, he felt all-powerful. He didn’t even turn to the Judge before ordering the guards to remove from the court all of Hassan friends, including his mother. Just before exiting, we heard the judge ordering the “Nakhshon” guards, those responsible for carrying around and harassing the detainees, to bring Hassan but let him stay out of the court room while the hearing of his case will take place.

We waited outside while the three lawyers stayed in, doing their best to defend Hassan’s case without being able to talk with him or see the “secret evidence” that the police submitted to the judge. After some time, the lawyers were ordered to leave the court while Hassan was brought before the judge. Even eye-contact between the detainees and his lawyers is not allowed – all a part of the Shabak police tactic to isolate their victim, breaking his spirit by harsh conditions and torture, in order to force upon him false confessions.

In the end, we were informed that the judge remanded Hassan’s detention for two days, apparently feeling uneasy about the brutal rape of her court by the Shabak.

* * *

Wednesday Evening, October 7

The Haifa district court reclaimed today his reputation as a rubber stamp for the Shabak.

In three separate hearings it:

Accepted the prosecution’s appeal for the “too short” extension of Hassan’s detention – and ordered his detention for 8 days until Wednesday, October 14.

Rejected ‘Adalah’s appeal against the order that prevents Hassan from meeting a lawyer.

Imposed a wholesale GAG order preventing any publication about the case.

Friday, October 9

The decree that prevents Hassan from meeting a lawyer was extended until Saturday, October 10.

Place Holder

In order not to be in violation of the GAG order, the text of the post was replaced for some time with the following Place Holder:

What happened to Hassan Nadaf?

Was he kidnapped by Aliens?

Is he held by a secretive criminal gang?

We don’t know and those that might know are not allowed to tell us…

What kind of a state is it that people are just vanishing and we are not even allowed to ask where they are???

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We return from the demonstration in Ramiya against Apartheid in the Galilee and talk about the struggle against the Prawer Plan for dispossessing the Arabs of the Naqab (Negev). Confusion reigns … Did we win or not? Was the Prawer Plan really stopped or does the government still intend to raise it again? In any case it is clear that the fight is not over. Discrimination, destruction and dispossession are the characteristics of “the system” all across the country, from the river to the sea. With increasing self-confidence of the young activists the struggle will go on and escalate.

Are we ready for the struggle ahead? Did we learn the lessons from previous struggles and recent events?

One essential issue in every struggle is the defense of the detainees. On the last “Day of Rage” (30/11/2013) against the Prawer Plan, in the demonstrations in Hora and in Haifa, it seemed that it was mostly the police that unleashed unbridled rage at the demonstrators. Demonstrators who were arrested were brutally beaten systematically after their arrest and beating continued even in the police stations. Contempt for the law by the police is reaching new heights when a prisoner begs to stop hitting him and the cop advises him to “complain to Mahash” and continues to beat him. (“Mahash” is the department responsible for investigations of complaints against policemen, and is famous for closing cases without any investigation.) We still have a lot to do even just to make the police try to pretend to respect the law.

In any case we can learn a lot from the experience of the recent detentions…

Why was Eldad Zion Arrested?

One of the detainees in the Hora demonstration was a teacher from Tel Aviv named Eldad Zion. Even according to the police Eldad was not involved in any violent activity during the demonstration. He was detained because he tried to talk to the police and convince them not to beat other detainees.

The primary offense that was attributed to Eldad by the police in the Be’er Sheva court occurred at the police station called “The Townships Station”, to which he was taken with other detainees from the demonstration. Eldad’s description of the event is presented by Or Kashti in “Haaretz” in the following words: “I entered the detainees’ room, whose walls are adorned with handwritten ‘Kahane was right’ and ‘Moses commanded to kill all the Arabs’, with the symbols of the Border’s Guard police unit. I saw a policeman slapping a detainee, so I raised my voice. In response 2-3 policemen attacked me from behind, took me out of the room, kicked me and broke the glasses… I did my civic duty while confronted by police violence. The police must be supervised by civilians. We must remain vigilant.”

On the other hand, the police accusations against Eldad, designed to justify the assault, amounted to claiming that “he grabbed a policeman’s shirt and pushed another officer.” On this flimsy base the prosecution tried consistently to build an image of Eldad as a dangerous person, as Kashti reported from the court: “This is a dangerous man,” said prosecution attorney Guy Zehavi yesterday, “the first rule of release on bail is confidence. Here is someone that has no fear of the law and goes against the law – assaults and disrupts.” Mr. Zehavi objected to the claim that Zion is not dangerous because the Prawer Plan was canceled. “First, the program is not canceled, and secondly – it’s like one who killed his wife and now claims not to be dangerous any longer because his wife already died.”

Eldad was kept in detention due to these accusations for two and a half weeks. The police even sought remand until the end of proceedings. Finally, the court decided to release him to house arrest under “24 hours guard” by his friends who volunteered to guarantee his release. Just yesterday (24.12) Eldad was finally released from house arrest under severe restrictive conditions.

Eldad himself, being such a good soul, after being beaten by the police, declared that he forgives them for all that they did. He reiterated this position even after his release and expanded his forgiveness to include the prosecution that insisted on remand and the judges which extended his detention for no reason again and again.

We’re talking about Eldad and try to understand his position – is it naivety or greatness? Is it possible that this position has led to further harassment against him? Here are some historical precedents.

Memories from the Intifada

Muhannad tells us about a friend from the days of the Stones’ Intifada (1987-1995), who was active in “The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” and participated in many clashes against the occupation soldiers. He was arrested many times, interrogated and tortured. He was sentenced and spent a period in Israeli prisons.

After he served his sentence and the Intifada ended, our friend finished his undergraduate studies and earned a scholarship to graduate school in the United States. He applied for permission to study through the Palestinian “Liaison Committees”, but all his appeals were rejected.

In his repeated appeals to the Palestinian liaison officer our friend begged him:

– “Tell them, the Israelis, that I’m not vindictive. I forgive them for everything they did to me.”

– “You see,” replied the liaison officer, “precisely because of this attitude you will never get a travel permit. Because you see yourself in a position where you can forgive the Israelis! They will never forgive you for that…”

Dangerous Historical Precedent

Finally Iris summarizes the discussion.

Eldad was lucky to be released to house arrest. He got off cheaply. The person that preceded him and thought he could forgive everybody finished on the cross.

It is common knowledge that the police are taught the art of “dry beating” – causing a lot of pain but not leaving clear marks to show in court. Well, today’s police apparently lost this fine art. 21 demonstrators who were arrested on Saturday in the “Day of Rage” demonstration in the German Colony in Haifa downtown were brought to the court yesterday (Sunday 1/12/2013) for remand. Many of them did not have to raise a shirt or roll up their pants’ sleeves to show the judge their bruises – signs of trauma and blood were easily seen on their faces.

Sabrin Diab, a young woman from Tamra in the Galilee, appeared at court with a broken arm fixed in plaster (in the picture, last on the left in the rear) – as a result of the beating she had taken at the time of her arrest. When the lawyers of some other detainees asked the police representative in court “Did he receive medical treatment?” the answer was uniform and laconic: “whoever asked for medical treatment received it.” One after the other the detainees stood up and testified about beatings and pains – and the refusal of the Haifa police and the guards at the Jalameh detention center (“Kishon”) to allow them to see a doctor or receive treatment.

Police Escalation – Also in Court

In the last days the Israeli media was full with incitement by the heads of the racist Zionist establishment against the demonstrators protesting the “Prawer Plan”. Netanyahu’s call to “prosecute them to the end” was not lost on the Haifa police. The police chose to request remand for 21 of the demonstrators that were detained in Haifa, two of them minors. When the hearing judge decided this morning to release the two minors and send them to house arrest, the police rushed to ask for a stay of execution and appealed.

The hearing on extending the detention of the 19 other detainees – four of them women – was conducted in 3 different sessions due to the difficulty to accommodate all the detainees in the courtroom. But the police in its remand request collected all the charges in one package against all of them. To raise the severity of the accusations they resorted to articles of the law that are rarely used in such cases. All 19 detainees were accused of “assaulting a police officer with firearms or cold weapons” and of “causing severe injury when the offender is carrying a weapon.”

Fortunately the enthusiasm and wild exaggeration did not serve the police well this time. The police representative tried to describe the situation as if the German Colony’s streets were full of stones being thrown and told about many policemen that were injured and needed treatment. When asked to provide details he could not name even one policeman who was injured and could not provide any medical certificates.

When the police prosecutor was requested to elaborate how were the “suspects” armed and asked whether any weapons were sized he claimed that they were armed with stones, which were naturally thrown and therefore not caught with the protesters. When asked what was the role of each of the suspects he responded only that “the evidence is before the court.” In some cases the judge volunteered to review the material and answered instead of the policeman – and in all those cases it appeared that the suspects were charged in their initial interrogation only with “assaulting police officers” and all the issue of stone-throwing (or any other “weapons”) was not even mentioned.

Beating in the Advanced Command Post

From what the detainees told in court we learned that they were beaten hardest after their violent arrest. The police established a forward command center in a municipal building on Radak Street near Carmel Boulevard (“Ben Gurion”). The cops were leading the detainees to this center where they could beat them freely away from the media and the public.

One detainee told how a policeman held him down by pressing his knee (the cop’s) on his neck while punching fists in his face. The signs of the knee and punches were easy to identify.

Alleged Ground for Remand

Cases where protesters are detained typically follow a fixed pattern: the cops complain that they were victims of assault and they are also the witnesses. This format has one advantage: because it is assumed that the detainees can’t influence the police witnesses, it is difficult to use the grounds of “fear of obstruction of justice” to justify prolonged detention. This time the police tried to justify a prolonged detention by claiming that they intend to interrogate many people who were present, not only police officers…

The police prosecutor, who recently enjoyed high unconditional confidence from the Haifa Court in various political detention cases, refused to answer most questions. He even refused to answer some question routinely repeated in remand hearings as “how many investigation acts the police intends to conduct?” (The only answer given to this question was “a lot”). When he was asked questions about various details in the case he often avoided any answer and kept himself busy with the mobile phone in his hand. At one point, he even ostentatiously turned his back to the lawyer who was questioning him. When that attorney protested he said: “I hear you this way just the same.”

The detainees complained that they were denied food and drink all the way at the Haifa police station, in prison and while in detention in court. One of the lawyers even asked whether starving the detainees is part of the many “investigation acts” taken by the police in this case.

The fight against the Prawer Plan continues in court

Many representatives of the media attended the court hearing. There is no doubt that the “Day of Rage” protest on Saturday brought a quantum leap in public awareness to the Prawer plan to dispossess the Arabs of the Naqab (Negev in Hebrew) and the resistance it evokes.

It is common practice that, while the detainees are brought into the court, reporters and photographers get a “time out” to take pictures and interview them. These are often difficult and embarrassing moments for detainees. This time the detainees entered holding their heads high and happy for the opportunity to speak out – obviously proud to take part in the just struggle against ethnic cleansing. They rushed to make statements to the media about the objectives of the struggle. Some of the detainees raised their hands with the victory sign upon entering the hall.

Many of the defense lawyers explained and stressed in court that this is a legitimate, just and even indispensable struggle of the Arab population against the injustice done by the state. Some lawyers even mentioned that they themselves participated in the demonstration.

Release, appeal and postponement

Meanwhile the appeal hearing about the release of the two minor detainees was held in the district court. Under pressure from the court, the parties agreed on postponing the release until 8 pm.

After long proceedings that filled most of the time from 9:30 am to 17:00 pm, the judge decided to release the rest of the detainees. The prosecution announced that it plans to appeal. Six detainees, including Sabrin Diab with the broken arm and lawyer Suhair Assad were released anyway. Release of the rest, two women and eleven men, was postponed until the appeal hearing on Monday.

* * *

Today (Monday, December 2) at 14:30 the Haifa District Court decided to dismiss the prosecution’s appeal and release all the detainees – some of them under house arrest.